St. Mary by-the-Sea

St. Mary by-the-Sea is a retreat house in Cape May Point, Cape May County, New Jersey. In 1889, the popular Shoreham Hotel was built, boasting 150 rooms, 1,200 feet of porches, and a beautiful lawn leading 200 feet to the ocean. The hotel was sold in 1898 and became a home for aged and infirm African-Americans, and, in 1909, the Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph, from Philadelphia, purchased the property for $9,000. Crosses were added to the roof, the ballroom became the chapel, and the sisters came for retreat and vacation. During World War II, the building was leased to the US Army for $100 a year, and it was not until 1966 that the sisters could swim in the Atlantic Ocean, as the ocean had been scattered with mines during the war. Following the hurricane of 1962, the Sisters and the US Army Corps of Engineers cooperated with the town to build sand dunes to protect Cape May Point, and the house stood against the time and the sea.